News of births finds niche on Web

Bill Brubaker, The Washington PostCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Two-day-old Spencer George Cook made his debut in cyberspace last month, inaugurating a new Webcast service at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia.

"This is fun!" said Spencer's mom, Susan Cook, as the camera rolled and questions from friends and family members in three states appeared instantly on a computer screen. "This is the new technology of the new millennium."

Never mind that Spencer missed most of the Webcast, fast asleep in his dad Glen Cook's arms.

"I see him! He is so cute," Lori Sandercock, the wife of a cousin from Birmingham, Mich., wrote in the chat room created for Spencer.

"The real time is slightly blurry for me, but it's really a neat idea," wrote Jenny Hedrick, a friend from Easton, Pa.

Over the past two years, hospital officials say, expectant mothers have been asking for an Internet alternative to baby announcements.

BabyPressConference.com, which is free at Fairfax Hospital, enables new parents to field questions from loved ones around the globe. Anyone, that is, who has an Internet connection, media-player software and an invitation to join the password-protected party.

"It made sense," said Toni Ardabell, an administrator from Inova Health System, which owns Fairfax Hospital. "Many young women who are having babies work in high-tech companies around here. These women grew up in the computer era. They get birth announcements from friends online. And now they're looking for technology that connects them to their families when they're experiencing one of the most important events in their lives."

The 30-minute Webcast is the brainchild of Lee Perlman, 42, executive vice president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, which co-owns BabyPressConference.com with Toys "R" Us Inc. and several other investors.

Since early last year, more than 3,700 baby "press conferences" have been held at more than 100 hospitals around the United States, according to Perlman. One Webcast, at New York University Medical Center, attracted 200 cyberguests from as far away as Tokyo, he said.

Perlman predicts BabyPressConference.com soon will be profitable through sales of technical equipment to hospitals (Fairfax paid $8,000 for its setup) and baby-related merchandise to parents and their online guests.

Typically, parents are introduced to the service through a brochure, mailed to expectant mothers by the hospital. And when the Webcast is over, the flier suggests, why not make a few online purchases--for mom, dad or baby?

And if the idea of buying a stroller, rattle, high chair, stuffed animal or floral arrangement isn't appealing, how about a $29.95 CD-ROM that replays the entire baby news conference?

"If they don't buy a copy of it, it's lost into cyberspace," Perlman said in an interview. "We're banking on the notion that they're going to want to commemorate the Webcast by having a copy of the CD-ROM. Because it's the first broadcast with their child."

"I don't consider myself a techie, but I thought it was a great idea," said Cook, 37, president of Media Ventures Partners, a brokerage firm. "I like it because there are people in my family who are not able to come to the hospital. And they can see the baby in real time."